On Friday, Rancho Palos Verdes officials announced a special closed City Council meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday to discuss the city’s new pick for its top administrative position.

The day before, Bill Widmer, a 59-year-old IT executive and recently re-elected City Council member in the affluent Silicon Valley town of Atherton, told that city’s paper, The Almanac, that for now, he does not plan to leave his elected office and that he would get an apartment here while his Atherton home is under construction.

In an email to the Daily Breeze, Widmer said that, with regard to his roles on the City Council and the regional South Bayside Waste Management Authority, he “will have to develop a transition plan as there are a number of activities which just cannot be dropped. These are volunteer roles and will not impact any time or effort required by RPV.”

Widmer’s contract does provide $3,000 a month for temporary housing for up to nine months — and up to $10,000 total compensation for moving expenses — but it requires him to relocate to a residence in or near the city.

Reached briefly Friday, Widmer said he “wouldn’t stay on the council forever, no. Being on a council and being a city manager both are extremely time intensive and require a lot of activity, so it’s inconceivable for anyone to do both for an extended period of time.”

The news of Widmer’s new $215,000 job hundreds of miles south came as a complete surprise to his fellow council members and to town employees. He did not mention it at Atherton’s City Council meeting Wednesday, even though Rancho Palos Verdes’ council had publicly approved his contract the night before.

“He should have resigned his position immediately upon accepting this — to do anything other than that would be like trying to be in two marriages at the same time,” said Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Susan Brooks. “You can’t have your allegiance to two cities.”

Atherton Mayor Rick DeGolia said Widmer told him Wednesday that he was still making up his mind about resigning from the council, and that he “wouldn’t be bullied” into making a decision.

“If he takes the job, he’s ultimately going to have to resign, and if he does that, I think he should do it sooner than later,” DeGolia said, noting that he did not feel it was a conflict for Widmer to apply for the job while he ran for re-election, especially since he was not offered the position until after he won a second term.

“To do the job right, he needs to be down there and he knows it,” DeGolia said. “It’s a huge loss for Atherton for him to leave the council.”

A city manager simultaneously holding office in another city is “very unusual,” according to Michele Frisby, director of public information for the International City/County Management Association, or ICMA, considered to be the standard setter for professional local government managers.

“I would question how he could continue to be on a council in a community in which he’s no longer living,” she said, adding that Widmer “should be given the opportunity to transition, just like anybody else who’s transitioning from a certain set of responsibilities.”

The association’s code of ethics does not allow its 9,500 members to run for elected office or accept appointments to office.

Rancho Palos Verdes’ city manager is not required to be a part of the ICMA, but many, like Acting City Manager Carolyn Petru, join voluntarily. The last three city managers have all been part of the association, according to Petru.

Megan Barnes covers crime and public safety for the Press-Telegram. She was previously a city reporter at the Daily Breeze, where she covered the South Bay beach cities and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Before that, she was a freelancer writing about LGBT news and her hometown of San Pedro, where she probably made your latte at Starbucks. She loves iced Americanos and Radiohead and finally got to see them live on the A Moon Shaped Pool tour. It was magical.